Journal of Negro Education

The Meaning of Democracy

Author(s): Charles E. Merriam
Source: The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 10, No. 3, Racial Minorities and the Present
International Crisis (Jul., 1941), pp. 309-317
Published by: Journal of Negro Education
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2292736
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 CHAPTER I

THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY

CHARLES E. MERRIAM

Let me first raise the question, what institutions, understandings and prac-
is democracy? What is the meaning tices as a basis of order, liberty, jus-
of this term that so profoundly affects
tice.
our way of life? The definition may 5. The value of decisions arrived at
seem a little formal or even forbid- by common counsel rather than by vi-
ding, but in view of all the loose uses olence and brutality.
of the word, it is important to set forth These postulates rest upon (1) rea-
what we understand.' son in regarding the essential nature
Democracy is a form of political of the political man, upon (2) observa-
association in which the general con- tion, experience and inference, and (3)
trol and direction of the common- the fulfillment of the democratic ideal
wealth is habitually determined by the is strengthened by a faith in the final
bulk of the community in accordance triumph of ideals of human behavior
with understandings and procedures in general and of political behavior in
providing for popular participation particular.
and consent. Its postulates are: There are three bases of the mod-
1. The essential dignity of man, the ern meaning of democracy:
importance of protecting and cultivat- 1. The intellectual foundations-
ing his personality on a fraternal the theory of democratic association.
rather than upon a differential basis, 2. The structural forms and general
of reconciling the needs of the per- understandings adapted to democracy.
sonality within the framework of the 3. New programs necessary to
common good in a formula of liberty, maintain democracy under new con-
justice, welfare. ditions. They cannot all be considered
2. The perfectibility of man; con- here, but some misunderstandings can
fidence in the possibilities of the hu- be cleared away.
man personality, as over against the
ENDS AND MEANS
doctrines of caste, class, and slavery.
3. That the gains of commonwealths First of all, it is necessary not to
are essentially mass gains rather than confuse the mechanisms of democracy
the efforts of the few and should be with its fundamental purposes. It is
diffused as promptly as possible all too easy to worship the machinery
throughout the community withoutrather too than the spirit of democracy.
great delay or too wide a spread in Democracy
dif- does not consist in spe-
ferentials. cial forms and sets of powers but in
4. Confidence in the value of the the underlying principles upon which
consent of the governed expressed in political association rests. To confuse
democracy with its tools is fatal to
1 See Merrian, The New Democracy and the
New D espotism. New York: McGraw Hill & Co. survival and growth.
(1939); and What ig Democracy? Chicago: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1941. For example, to regard weakness in
309

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310 THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION

government as essential to democracy Dictatorships do not arise from

is a confusion caused by survival of gradual accumulation of power after
the old idea that democracy must be power, but from lack of power to deal
small and weak and timid: that only with emergency situations. Out of
despotic governments could be strong. chaos and weakness comes the figure
Yet in our time, liberty is preserved of the strong man on horseback or
not by keeping government weak, but in the tank and aeroplane in our day.
by keeping it strong enough to deal Dictatorship historically was a demo-
with all the problems of the state that cratic device by means of which large
may arise. Safety does not lie in power was given for a limited period.
brakes alone, but in dynamics as well. The defense of liberty does not lie
A democracy that fears power, wheth- in negatives, but in positives. The defi-
er power to repel foreign foes or power nition of virtue is not found in im-
to deal with its internal problems, is potence but in self-control. Checks and
on its way to dissolution. This is a balances and divisions of authority
fundamental in the rethinking of de- have their uses, but the real guarantee
mocracy that lies at the basis of dem- of liberty is found, as Alexander Ham-
ocratic strength. ilton declared, in "the general genius
No factor in American life is more of the government," in the understand-
dangerous to the commonweal than the ings, practices, and ideals without
distrust of necessary power to act- which no forms, however elaborate,
the conclusion that we can be free only can preserve the life of a democratic
if we are weak. Precisely the opposite society.
is true, both in politics and in eco-
DEMOCRACY AND CHANGE
nomics. The one experiment we had
with headless government-the Arti- The meaning of democracy in-
cles of Confederation-taught the volves appreciation of the importance
Founding Fathers a lesson which was of change and willingness to change.
seen in the adoption of a strong Con- Historically, democracy had to make
stitution. its way against privilege entrenched
There are always timid souls, of by tradition, reinforced by systems of
course, who fear power. They really thought, and finally supported by force
fear life and action, but are not very of arms. Freedom of thought, freedom
dangerous, for by the logic of their of speech, freedom of association were
own position they will not prove all closed against criticism. Over all
strong. The real menace is in those these barriers the development of lib-
who fear power because it may deal erty and equality was obliged to ad-
vance at terrible cost, often by rev-
effectively with their special privileges
and emoluments-those who cry lib- olutionary movements of the most
erty when they really mean their own sanguinary nature. But it is an old
property, who cry equality when they saying that the sons of revolutionists
really mean vast inequality, who plead are seldom revolutionists, and democ-
for industrial immunity from govern- racy once established may find itself
mental action when they really mean attempting to defend itself against
to crush out competition. change. It is even possible for New

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 THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY 311

England to become older and more changes are upon us in even greater
conservative than Old England. number and significance. Adaptabil-
It is true that traditions have very ity and flexibility are the supreme tests
great value. Yet traditions are not as of survival in our time, and democ-
faithful servants of democracy as they racy must be prepared to meet chang-
are of some other regimes. For de- ing situations as never before in its his-
mocracy by its very nature is the foe tory.
of any tradition after the tradition has On the other hand, not all change
lost its value to the society it serves. is good, certainly not because it is
Other systems build upon the prolong-change. It is good as it serves a useful
ing of differential advantage through purpose in the life of the society. One
some form of legal status, but de- of the very severest tests of sagacity,
mocracy does not. In a genuine democ- political or otherwise, is the ability to
racy men's status does not require the distinguish between the essential and
support of any arbitrary line of tradi- the non-essential change. I do not pro-
tional succession. Ability is constantly fess to have any infallible formula for
recruited from the mass itself, on the this. Yet a man or a people who can-
basis of merit which is constantly re- not make a fairly good calculation is
created and constantly rediscovered. in danger not only of trouble, but of
Title depends not on the dead past, but extinction. The survival of the fittest
on the living present. will catch up with him.
This is one of the very greatest mer- Here is one formula that will not
its of the democratic system of politi- work. Not so long ago a famous New
cal organization. The question "How York legislative committee (the Lusk
does this change affect us, our family,Committee) said:
our group, our clan, our set?" con- No person who is not eager to combat the
cerns aristocracy deeply; but for de- theories of social change should be entrusted
mocracy such a question is less sig- with the task of fitting the young and old
of this state for the responsibilities of citi-
nificant, since democratic social gain
zenship.
relates to the common good.
Institutions, attitudes, practices are Our new orientation requires a
not valuable to a democracy in pro- change from control by tradition and
portion to their age but in relation to taboo to control by design, plan, and
their present-day soundness and util- purpose, and this is one of the central
ity. The whole art of utilizing tradi- points in the new democracy. If de-
tions consists in the separation of the mocracy at any given time loses the
general and the particular in the case capacity to learn, and, if necessary,
in question. The essential principles of to change, the hour of its usefulness is
democracy are of general validity, but ended for the time. Some other form of
the special arrangements in themselves association will take its place, with
have no general validity. courage and force to shape the old to
These considerations become vastly the new, even under undesirable aus-
more important with the swift change pices.
in the world's tempo. As we look for- All the more menacing does the sit-
ward we can see that many more uation become when those who oppose

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312 THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION
change are not acting merely from in-
dolence and inertia but from a con-
cealed desire, possibility concealed
even from themselves, to protect their
own personal or group interests as
against the commonweal. The ideal of
some is a "greater and better status
quo." This is not conservation or con-
servatism, but selfishness masked as
the enemy of constructive change.
In passing from the discussion of
this particular point, let me again de-
clare that the confusion of the means
of democracy with the ends of democ-
racy is a form of intellectual muddling
which may threaten our whole politi-
cal purpose. The goals and directions
of democracy do not change, but the
roads over which we advance will wind
about from time to time and the ve-
hicles will change. The ability to make
these distinctions and decisions is con-
clusive in this bitter and pitiless strug-
gle for survival. The deserts of politi-
cal history are strewn with the bones
of those who would not change their
course in their struggle toward a dis-
tant goal. They may have followed
the compass, but they did not watch
their way. Democracy is not as some
seem to suppose merely a work of art
to be admired and preserved. It is
something to be developed, enriched
matured as time goes on.
DEMOCRACY AND INDUSTRY
Rethinking democracy requires
clearing up the confusion between
democratic and industrial systems. In
recent years democracy has been at-
tacked on the one side by defenders
of laissez faire economics, who found
in democratic institutions an inevita-
ble trend toward socialism. On the
other hand, democracy has been as-
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sailed with equal vigor by Marxians
and more recently by communists, who
are positive that democracy is a by-
product of capitalism and must stand
or fall with the capitalistic economy.
Both were so obsessed with the su-
preme importance of economic phe-
nomena that they could not see clearly
in the domain of the political. The re-
sult was that one eliminated the state
entirely and the other reduced the
functions of the state to a minimum-
"anarchy plus a policeman." Perhaps
nothing in modem life has wrought
more destruction than this assump-
tion of the determining quality of fac-
tors vaguely called "economic." This
has led on the one hand to the con-
stant fear of the state by industrial-
ists, and on the other hand to revolu-
tionary movements directed against
the bourgeois state by Marxians.2 It
was the impact of these conflicting
ideas upon the fabric of the state, the
nineteenth-century national state, that
opened the way for Fascism in Italy
and for Naziism in Germany. In each
of these cases, the military national
state was substituted for the demo-
cratic national state, and the area of
consent militarized.
It cannot be too strongly stated that
the democratic political association is
not dependent upon any particular set
of economic relations. The democratic
state might be and has been rural
and agrarian, or it might be urban and
industrial, or it might be a combina-
tion of the two. The democratic state
is not inconsistent in principle with an
2 What I say of Marxians of course must be
qualified by the understanding that the original
Marxians were anarchists, that the Social Demo-
crats were parliamentary democrats, and that the
Communists have forgotten the "withering away
of the state" in a totalitarian dictatorship of the
proletariat.
 THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY 313

economic system vaguely called "capi- paternalism. The German liberals were
talism," nor is it a by-product of capi- the German nationalists, while the
talism, inseparable from it. German reactionaries were anti-na-
It is just at this point, however, that tional. In later years nationalism was
some of the great tragedies of recent seized by conservatives and is now ex-
times have occurred. Thus many Brit- ploited as the tool of Nazi imperial-
ish Tories preferred some special priv- ism.
ileges under capitalism even at the ex- As new forms of technology spring
pense of a mistaken appeasement of up and new types of communication
Naziism. Likewise, in France, various are developed, the oldtime boundary
industrialists preferred Hitlerism to lines that marked a national state be-
communism and thus helped in the de- come obsolete. Thus Dr. Goebbels may
struction of democracy. On the other say that England is no longer an is-
hand, various communists preferred land. Or Mr. Baldwin may say the
communism to democracy and aided in Rhine is the frontier of England. Or
the assault on democracies. we in America may say our first line
of defense is the British Isles. With
DEMOCRACY AND GEOGRAPHICAL UNITSairplanes flying at 400 miles an hour or

Nor is democracy derived from any more as time goes on, it is plain that
particular categories of geography or the oldtime areas must be reconsid-
of race. The Greek democracies were ered and recast, either with or without
city states. The Roman Republic was the democratic association. Rivers are
an expansion of the city far into the not effective military boundaries, nor
countryside. The ancient Swiss democ- do mountain ranges present the old-
racies were rural communes meeting time obstacles to the enemy. Not even
on the lovely hillsides under the blue oceans are any longer an effective
sky. The home of democracy in the guarantee of national independence or
Middle Ages was the urban commu- territorial integrity.
nity, where some degree of autonomy It is plain therefore that some part
had been purchased or somehow of the reorganization of democracy
seized. must be done in terms of geographic
The modern democracies are na- areas, in relation to modern transpor-
tional states. Democracies have been tation. The democratic mind must be
federal states and might cease to be flexible enough to disregard conditions
federal states or become federal states that were and shape the boundaries
again. The ideal democratic society that are to be. In principle this is sim-
might be a world state and probably ple, but in practice I find it extremely
would be. The British democracy is a difficult. If you have ever tried to con-
commonwealth of nations stretched solidate two towns or townships, you
around the globe and held together in will know what I mean. If you have
a unique bond of what might be called ever tried to consolidate two counties,
imperial fellowship or federalism. you may never try again. If you try
In the early part of the nineteenth to consolidate the independent juris-
century, democracy was the friend of dictions of the metropolitan commu-
nationalism as against the old feudal nity, you will not be without the ap-

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314 THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION
propriate scars of battle. The federa-
tion of nations is a task of vastly
greater difficulty, as experience amply
demonstrates.
But love of the primitive cannot be
a firm basis of political organization
and action. The world is rushing on
and fundamental changes must be
made in units of political organization,
however sharp the wrench may some-
times be. There are sharper twists
and more stabbing pains when read-
justments are not made in time, as
Danes, Norwegians, Hollanders, Bel-
gians, French may testify, and other
witnesses to come. The town meetings
on the beautiful hillsides of Switzer-
land would mean little to a squadron
of bombers.
THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
Finally it is important to restate
democratic ideals in modern terms.
Youth are thinking of what life will
hold for them as they come along, in-
heriting the spirit of Revolution and
the custody of the brotherhood of man.
Let me quote a popular poet, my
longtime friend Carl Sandburg:
I was a boy when I heard three red words
a thousand
Frenchmen died in the streets for: Liberty,
Equality,
Fraternity-I asked why men die for words.
I was older; men with mustaches, sideburns,
lilacs, told me
The high golden words are: Mother, Home
and Heaven-
Other older men with face decorations said:
God, Duty, Immortality-
Years ticked off their say-so on the great
clocks of doom and damnation, soup and
nuts; meteors flashed their say-so:
And out of Great Russia came three dusky
syllables workmen took guns and went
out to die for: Bread, Peace, Land.
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And I met a marine of the U.S.A., a leather-
neck with a girl
On his knee for a memory in ports circling
the earth and he said:
Tell me how to say three things and I
always get by-gimme a plate of ham and
eggs,-how much?-do you love me, kid?
One night not so long ago it was with
no little emotion that I heard the voice
of a first voter, coming over the air
and saying:
I have just been drafted and am glad to
give a year of my life or whatever may be
demanded to my country, but I and others
intend to have something to say about the
conditions in the country we are happy to
fight for. It is our country in more ways than
one.
What is the emerging program of
the new democracy? Underneath the
surface of shoutings and clashes of
arms there are basic questions which
the new era, inherited by youth, must
deal with and solve, if social equilib-
rium is to be restored, as it will be.
In the organization field our think-
ing is challenged by the problem of
the jural order of the world and by the
internal reorganization of democracy
in terms of technological and human
significance. This is the challenge to
democracy.
But have no doubt as to the nature
of the struggle in which all the world
is now engaged. It is not a war of
words, or a clash of personal ambitions
of strong men, or even one of tribal
rivalries. The world into which we
have come is essentially a revolution-
ary world. The modern struggle is not
a mere war but a cataclysm, presag-
ing a new world, new in a far newer
sense than the physical discovery of a
physical world four and one-half cen-
turies ago. Reason and science have
caused the revolution; chemistry, biol-
 THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY 315
ogy, physics, social forces, ideas, in-
ventions are making another world
so rapidly that tradition and custom
are outdated by decades rather than
by centuries. The new New World
will not be shaped in the spirit of
homesickness for the past but of hope
for a creative future.
Economic units, political units, hier-
archies of all kinds that seek to per-
petuate their power, without conces-
sions or modifications, merely by in-
voking the past-all are now sub-
jected to the crucible of modern de-
velopment.
Universal education, universal mili-
tary service, urbanism, feminism,
massism in industry and economic
concentration-all these are affecting
our social and political thinking and
involving our democratic analyses. We
know we need not suffer by the decree
of God or nature, either slavery, pesti-
lence, war, or poverty.
The old world has gone and will not
return. We face a new era, which
searches all creeds, all forms, all pro-
grams, all ideologies.
The massive resistence to the dom-
inance of the past in all ways and
walks of life is obvious in many coun-
tries. The red rage, the blind protest,
the sullen indignation against special
privilege, against unfair distribution,
against injustice, non-recognition,
vested privilege, the frustration of
legitimate claims on society based on
the realized potentialities-these are
real.
Great masses of men and women are
not satisfied with life as it flows along. spirit to its depths. These fundamental,
These restless millions seek a new
heaven and a new earth. Taught to
write and read, and taught to fight,
and taught to fear no longer the an-
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cient tabus of authority, or outworn
economic or political creeds, taught to
regard the life of the law and not its
form, taught to believe creation a con-
tinuing process and that authority is
what they make it now, will not these
Seekers find the new New World they
seek? About the name of the way, or
the type of road, they do not care, if
they are sure they travel toward their
goal.
It is often forgotten that democracy
was in the beginning and still is a
revolutionary philosophy-revolution-
ary in the sense that Stoicism, Chris-
tianity, and science were and are revo-
lutionary. They are forward-looking,
idealistic, incapable of capture perma-
nently by any power-group or interest.
Religion, science, democracy have pa-
trons from time to time and some-
times forget their freedom in the
golden trappings of patronage; but in
spirit and in the end they are liber-
tarian and progressive. Yet in the long
run, religion is perfectionist, and sci-
ence is never satisfied with the present
boundaries of knowledge. A distin-
guished scientist recently said: "The
impossible is what we have not yet
learned to do."
The institutions of democracy have
harnessed revolutions so that they
may be brought about through peace-
ful means and without violence. The
most fundamental revolutions indeed
are not wrought by force, but by new
developments of intelligence, by in-
ventions and discoveries, or by pro-
found inner movements that stir the
revolutionary movements are imple-
mented by social readjustments of
various kinds, legislative, or other-
wise; and in some instances by out-
316 THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION
right organization of physical force.
The change in transportation and in
communication proceeds without vio-
lence; as do the tremendous changes in
chemistry, biology, education, and
medicine and engineering, manage-
ment and administration; but they
are revolutionary in essence and spirit.
Change, actual or potential, is a chal-
lenge to the status quo, and hence no
systems depending on the privileges of
a special caste or class are ensured
by the democratic form of political
association. Democracy is fundamen-
tally fraternal in its view of the gains
of civilization, and regards institutions
as means to its democratic ends. By
the same logic, democracy with its
confidence in conference, deliberation,
tolerance, has no reason to preach the
gospel of hate against individuals or
groups or institutions as such, prefer-
ring to persuade and draw them into
the democratic society.
The meaning of democracy will be
more clearly understood (1) when we
have clarified the significance of its
fundamental postulates in the light of
modern knowledge, (2) when we have
streamlined the structure of democ-
racy, (3) when we have set up a jural
order of the world, (4) when we have
adapted the program of democracy to
the needs of modern technology.3
THE NEW BILL OF RIGHTS
One hundred years ago our democ-
racy declared the basic rights of life,
liberty, the pursuit of happiness and
the public welfare. These rights are to
be protected and preserved, not merely
3 The outlines of such a program I have
sketched in my forthcoming volume (1941), On
The Agenda of Democracy (Godkin Lectures),
Harvard University Press.
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in form but in fact. In our day these
must be construed to include:
The right to a job at a fair wage;
The right to an education;
The right to food, clothing, health;
The right toq housing of a human
type;
The right to leisure, to recreation,
and to cultural opportunities;
The right to security within the
framework of national production,
against accident, disease, unemploy-
ment, old age.
If these rights are suspended it must
not be because some are well born and
others not, or because some have spe-
cial political privileges and others not,
or because weakness, incompetence, or
corruption enables greed to sack and
plunder those who are not able to
resist. Pestilence, war, famine, fire and
flood, emergencies of various types
may call for some temporary but equal
diminution of standards of living in
the spirit of national sacrifice, but
these exceptional circumstances will
be well understood and cheerfully ac-
cepted if burdens are fairly spread.
The greatest problem of democracy
in our day is to translate the gains of
our civilization into terms of the com-
mon good without undue delay. These
gains are not material alone. They in-
clude opportunities for the develop-
ment of the human personality in
many ways. In a democracy these
gains are set in the framework of the
dignity of man and the consent of the
governed as essential to the protection
and development of the general wel-
fare.
Democracy applies social intelli-
gence to the solution of this problem of
ensuring the fullest possible applica-
tion of human gains to the service of
 THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY 317
the common good. Democracy is not
primarily based upon economic forces
or .cultural forces, important as all
these are, but is a form of association
through which all these factors may
focus on the development and happi-
ness of the personality and on the pro-
motion of the general welfare. Democ-
racy is not merely a mechanism
through which personal development
might possibly be achieved, but also a
positive force facilitating the fullest
development of personalities within
the purview of the common good.
In our drive for preparedness, I do
not underestimate the dangers from
hostile military manoeuvers or from
organized espionage and treason
within. But a very great danger arises,
not merely from hostile ideas or organ-
izations, but from the baser side of
ourselves. Do you know any here who
worship success at any price in what-
ever hateful and ruthless form? By
graft, violence, corruption?
Do you know any who believe that
might makes right? A
Do you know any who sneer at
human fraternity and fellowship and
rail at great groups of their fellow
men?
Do you know any who believe in
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the inate superiority and rights of
the few to rule the rest of mankind?
Do you know any who are willing to
sell democracy down the river for a
mess of pottage such as Thyssen was
awarded?
Do you know any who rate the
people as a herd, a mob, the booboisie,
and sneer at its possibilities?
Do you know any who hope that in
a general catastrophe their own for-
tunes and position might be advanced
by skillful submission, surrender, deals
and trades?
This is the underside of patriotism,
the underside of human nature indeed,
but it cannot be ignored in studying
the preparedness of any community.
There is something of this in all of us
and much-in a few-in times of stress.
Police and force can do little against
these unseen foes. In moments of
strain such streaks of disposition may
weaken the hand or poison the will
of the state.
For my part, I hold that America
will come triumphant through this the
greatest ordeal of modern times-tri-
umphant not merely in a material or in
a military sense, but triumphant in the
higher and finer values where life
really dwells in its fullness.